This 3-year award to University of Minnesota Duluth provides support for technical services during NSF-funded programs on R/V Blue Heron, an 86' general purpose research vessel operated by the Large Lakes Observatory (LLO) as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet. University of Minnesota will provide one shipboard technician on each cruise of R/V Blue Heron to support Great Lakes research projects and to maintain, calibrate and provide for qualified users items from their pool of shared-use research instrumentation. ***